And I agree with Beezzers post. Want to see what it would look like in the USA? The VA Hospitals .. the massive taxes ... too much government ....
less freedoms. We already have SOME socialistic programs in the USA. But if we were to go full bore ... it would creep into everything and it all
would look like the VA Hospital/Obamacare disaster.

I am trying to not get carried away with point by point lengthy responses on that OP, but so much of it is ridiculous!

The story in the op was copied from the Examiner. So it's just something that somebody wrote on their blog that they try to pass off as news. This is
what the executive editor of Examiner said,
"They're blogs. They don't get edited. We don't give any direction to people on what to write in their blogs. And that's standard operating
procedure."

Hopefully it won't look like anything because hopefully it won't exist.

Yes because the system we have now is working out so great. We are so broke we have to borrow money to pay our bills. People in America have no
problem with socialism just look at all the socialist programs they embrace in this country. It is just the wealthy people that are running things
that don't want socialism.

What "socialist programs" are you referring to that people are embracing?

Reading through this thread it is clear people have no idea what socialism is nor that the US and Europe all have elements of Soclailist societies.
Since a true soclialist society has never existed any more than a true capalist society. Any thing the goverment does to try and control the economty
and private industy is socialist infrastructure like highways, railroads, dams, things child labor laws, and labor laws, monoply laws, safety
regulations, coporate welfare etc. Are all ways the US most are very socialist. Add to the things like public police, fire deparment, schools,
medicaid, medicare, unemployment, federaly insured banks, welware or anything else built or run by the goverment and not by a private for profit
company. Sure the US is the only modern country that has failed to provide universal heathcare but, lets face it that is just a matter of time, way
to many people who have nothing to medicine or medical treatement are many way to much money, making the entire US healthcare system doomed. So yes
American you already know what socialism looks like in America when you drive drown a street and do not have to pay a toll every mile to a private
company. Americans to dumb to know they already live in a soclialist society is alway amusing.

Hopefully it won't look like anything because hopefully it won't exist.

Yes because the system we have now is working out so great. We are so broke we have to borrow money to pay our bills. People in America have no
problem with socialism just look at all the socialist programs they embrace in this country. It is just the wealthy people that are running things
that don't want socialism.

What "socialist programs" are you referring to that people are embracing?

Police force
Fire department
Mail service
The Military/Defense
Highways/Roads
Public Libraries
Student Loans and Grants
Garbage Collection
Farm Subsidies
Social Security
Museums
Public Schools
Jail/Prison System
Corporate/Business Subsidies
Food Stamps
Sewer System
Medicare
State/City Zoos
Medicaid
State Construction
Unemployment Insurance
There are many more socialist programs that we have and use in America.

The banks seem to be the largest propagators of the socialist agenda... at least from what I've read in headlines over the past few years.
They mis-managed money and when they "ran dry" they ran to the gov't and said "Save us!"
And of course the gov't did, to the tune of trillions.
How is that not socialism.

It's not socialist until the govt owns all the land and all of industry, everything of possible ownership gets owned by the govt. so them programs
are not truly socialist because they don't bear the full weight of oppression, only a small amount if govt ownership. No charity is possible in
socialist state, because there is nothing that anyone owns to be charitable with, no profit to donate.

Last time I looked, the 'average' Brit paid 43% of his paypacket in direct and indirect taxes, and their health service still does not have enough
money to operate fully, there are constant complaints about waste in all government departments, but, as usual, nothing is done about it. the
government layers are astounding:- parish council,district council, town council, county council, then the government, then the EU, no wonder nothing
gets done about the huge waste all the up to the worst wasters of all, the EU government.

When I was writing my first post, I had not read the article through. Just my answer to socialism. Although now after reading the article, I can
honestly say it made my day, had a nice laugh

I truly hope it would be satire, although the possibility is low. I thought to answer the list he
posted. As I noticed, some already have, just a bit different perspective from this part of Europe (North-East, EU member).

There is no Central Air. They use dinky radiator-heaters in winter.

Why use Central Air? In summers it is usually about 80 degrees, maximum 90s. In winters it is very cold, up to -13, sometimes even colder

Gasoline is $7-$10 dollars a gallon because of government taxes, taxes Mr. Obama dreams of.

The distances most people travel are non-existent. Maximum I see is up to 50 miles a day, if you live in city, it comes less than 10 miles a day. When
the tax would be lower, infrastructure would suffer a lot. At the same time, as I mentioned, the public transport system is very efficient and is
free-of-charge, so most people use it.

People can’t afford mortgages unless they are 50-year mortgages.

20-25 is most common mortgage. Generally prices of apartments are relatively cheap. Around 150-200 dollars per square foot in the central part of
capital, much cheaper in outskirts, like 15-30 minutes away from central part

Consumers have no rights.

We don´t sue companies, I do not even know whether there is a right or not. There is right to complain though, right to protest, right to not be
discriminated against.

The standards for products, whether health or environmental are superior to US though. Just looking at the list of banned chemicals from foods is
enough, compared to FDA. The service of companies I have dealt with is good. Getting in touch with them has never been a problem, first phone call is
enough usually.

Closets do not exist.

You mean rooms? Why get a room for clothes??? I just buy a wardrobe and keep my stuff there...

You can’t wash your car in your own driveway and must go to an environment-friendly car wash and pay through the nose for it.

No idea about that one. Seems common sense though, considering all the chemicals that are washed off. Should be legal round here though, most people I
know wash their cars themself.

Every item of garbage you throw out must be color-coded.

It is not fully required, although it is required for every house to have separate trash bins for bottles, organic, waste paper. Everything else goes
to the main one. In the end, after using some product, it is normal in my eyes to expect people to sort it, so the left-overs would get recycled...

You must get government approval before you register your child’s name on a birth certificate.

No idea about that one. Personally I dont care. I would name my child Hitler anyways, normal names.

There are no gun rights.

Anybody who wants can get a gun, if they pass the psych evaluation, do not have a criminal record, addiction problems and are willing to go through
safety training.

It is normal to
expect that one. Overfishing during the last decades have caused serious issues. The amount of fish in Baltic Sea is becoming lower and lower. If
nothing is regulated, sooner or later the species would die out and no one could fish. Same applies to animals. People do not know the limits and if
everyone hunted as they pleased it would extinct many species.

It is illegal to have extreme views and they get to decide what is extreme. Flipping someone off is a crime.

Not round here. So far I have heard only once there has been punishment because of extreme views. It was a very hateful comment towards holocaust.
Nothing else. Generally extremist views are accepted. Anybody can believe whatever they want, just dont push it on others or do extreme act.

It costs thousands of dollars to get a license and own a car. There are speed cameras everywhere and everyone must have a $1 million of auto
insurance.

Car school+around 100 dollars for exams. The rules are high though, 1 hour drive, 3 mistakes allowed. I see it positive rather than negative, as
anybody getting licence should go through extensive training so not to set the lives of others in danger.

Germans only work 36-39 hours a week, the French work 35 hours.

And is it bad, when you earn enough from that amount and have more time to spend with family and friends? For most people, as long as you earn enough
to live reasonably well, family and friends are more important than getting all the stuff.

In The Netherlands, you have to pay taxes to park your car in our own driveway.

No idea, nothing like that here.

In Germany, people live on top of one another.

Apartments are common in Europe. Most people I know do not even want a house, so getting a
house is rare. Easier to move around from apartment, cheaper to live + why do you need so much space anyways? I get it when it is a large family, but
for a small one, like 2 kids, 4-room apartment is enough...

Throughout Europe, the showers run cold and have little pressure.

Haha

Joke?

The washers and dryers take several hours and do a terrible job.

Generally the speed is same as in US as the companies providing the
equipment are the same. Just costs a little more due to environmental standards.

There are no second job opportunities

Huh? ANybody can get, most dont want, as you need some private time as well, for family, friends. These
are values that top the second job for most people.

there is no bettering oneself.

... Self-improvement is valued a lot. Universities are free-of-charge, there is endless amount of different
trainings you can get (government/company-paid). Entrepreneurship is encouraged and the rates are higher per capita than in US...

I'm very sorry i have to post this before i read it all, but i have to tell you this, in a way i agree with you, right now we are living a kind od
imposed system to save the banks, and we are "almost" ruled by Angela Merkel, who was born in ocident germany (before the wall came down),But this is
happening right now, imo it all started go bad after we enter the euro, having a central bank with a unique coin, it's imposible because there are
countries that are very small, with unique characteristics, and economic systems adapted to their own culture. Our social system has worked for
decades, until it started being invested on politic moves. For instance, imagine you are in portugal,and you feel sick, but you dont have your walet,
no id, no money, you get to the urgency of the hospital and you are treated, and medicated; this is just an example, we have great public schools,
until the end of highschool; when in university you pay a fee, depending on the schooll and the incomes of your family , they atribute a
scholarship.
We have a diferent concepts about Nation and State, we are/make the nation the "state" is ours, because we have a lot of public utilities that we
pay for.
And off course we care about the enviroment, but we are not fanatics, we just have all the infrastruture to do it, if we want to...

the System coming to the USA will not resemble anything like the USSR Soviet system...

the USA is using the China model to springboard from---a 'sandbox'

my best guess is that the future USA Fascist Hierarchy will be more focused on the paradigm we seen in the 'GATTACA' movie that creates genetic
classes of individuals to run the Fascist/Corporate Apparatus

NAZI-ism or 'Farenheit 451' Dystopias are too un-sophisticated & primal.....even the libs like Pelosi Et Al will be laughed at in ridicule... and the
'collective' decision making by future Obama type administrations will not be around...
as AI quantum computing will not be far from reality in 2020...

We...the system engineers and technicians who are bred-&-designed to be a function of the Matrix will only be the workers & drones of the hive...
that's what your 'socialism' will look like

I'm unfortunate enough to live in Australia, the land of beer and honey. It's a terrible thing, apparently, the taxes I pay. Comparably high
apparently but I know that at least a decent portion of them goes to the right place. Yes, I agree some ends up in the pockets of our ageing
population (I call them pension bludgers) and some in the pockets of the young unemployed (I'm too angry at them to give them a name) and yes I know
that reasonably costed medicine for all and cheap (often free) education maybe beneficial, but I will sleep well tonight knowing that our leaders will
be well looked after for peons sorry eons left to come.

Wow! Reading through some of the posts from our American cousins you would honestly think they believe we're living in medieval time over here

Yeh I pay a few quid tax but don't we all but I'd sooner live here in the uk through the coldest of winters with our lil radiators in our lil brick
houses fit for frodo and friend than in the us of a at this moment in time

And to think a few years back that's all I wanted was to move to us after my first visit and explore what is no doubt a beautiful country with some
nice really nice people about, but not so much now....

Considering myself a socialist, even I highly doubt that there would ever be an openly socialist or otherwise far left-leaning government in power in
either the United States or Canada anytime soon, mostly due to the effects of McCarthyism and the big Red Scare during the 1950's. McCarthyism still
resonates because look at how we instantly demonize the words related to left-wing governments and use them as slander and slur to individuals and
groups we disagree with, to this day. It's an instant knee-jerk reaction which has been ingrained in our culture and won't be going anywhere anytime
soon.

originally posted by: CB328
Europeans have lots of freedoms, again you should learn about something before you criticize it. They at least have laws protecting their privacy
there that have been taken away from us.

Indeed, data protection laws, privacy laws, freedom of information laws to name a few. Then we have Net neutrality guaranteed in Europe thanks
to the EU Parliament standing up to the corporations, which is something I know you Americans have been getting upset at over there.

Having said that, there isn't really a "socialist" system in Europe and every country is different - lumping all 27 Nations together into one big lump
and calling it "socialism" is ignorant and ill-informed.

EDIT: I won't go through the OP point by point because, quite frankly, aside from the others who have done a bang up job I am not going to waste my
time on such ill-informed dribble that has obviously been written by someone with less brain cells than a particular stupid wombat.

The Above Top Secret Web site is a wholly owned social content community of The Above Network, LLC.

This content community relies on user-generated content from our member contributors. The opinions of our members are not those of site ownership who maintains strict editorial agnosticism and simply provides a collaborative venue for free expression.